JAK2 V617F and MPL W515L/K mutations in Korean patients with essential thrombocythemia.

JAK2 V617F and MPL W515L/K mutations have been reported in approximately 50% and 5% of the patients with essential thrombocythemia (ET), respectively. We investigated the frequency of MPL W515L/K mutations in a series of consecutive patients with ET and post-essential thrombocythemia myelofibrosis (post-ET MF). The study subjects were 63 patients diagnosed either with ET (N=59) or post-ET MF (N=4) at our institution between June 2006 and February 2010. Among them, 35 (55.6%) had the JAK2 V617F mutation. MPL W515L/K mutations were detected by direct sequencing analyses of exon 10, and 2 patients were found to harbor the following MPL mutations: W515L in 1 patient with ET and W515K in 1 patient with post-ET MF. Neither of the patients had the JAK2 V617F mutation. Thus, the frequency of MPL W515L/K mutation in Korean patients with ET/post-ETMF was 3.2% (2/63) and that in JAK2 V617F-negative ET/post-ET MF was 7.1% (2/28) [corrected]. This is the first study to report the frequency of JAK2 V617F and MPL W515L/K mutations in Korean patients with ET/post-ET MF.